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Panama City, Panama
Photo: JAVR2020 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Panama City

Panama · Latin America · 1,086,990 people · America/Panama · USD

Panama City scores 59.1/100 for digital nomads under balanced weights, ranking 865 of 1501 cities. Expect about $1,713 per month, a nomad visa (Short-stay visa for remote workers), and a measured median download speed of 43.6 Mbps.

Panama City is a modern hub using the US dollar, with rainforest inside the city and a friendly visa regime. It is humid all year and car-oriented.

  • US dollar
  • Hub airport
  • Canal and rainforest
  • Humid year-round
Cost of living: 5.3 of 59 points (scores 48/100)Safety: 5.4 of 59 points (scores 48/100)Healthcare: 9.2 of 59 points (scores 83/100)Internet: 7.8 of 59 points (scores 70/100)Visa ease: 8.8 of 59 points (scores 79/100)Getting there & around: 3.1 of 59 points (scores 28/100)Climate: 3.7 of 59 points (scores 33/100)Air quality: 8.8 of 59 points (scores 79/100)Quality of life: 7.0 of 59 points (scores 63/100)59
Balanced score
out of 100
Vibe check
  • Cost5.3
  • Safety5.4
  • Health9.2
  • Internet7.8
  • Visa8.8
  • Mobility3.1
  • Climate3.7
  • Air8.8
  • QoL7.0

Rank 865 of 1,501

For US nomads

  • US passport entry
    180 days visa-free
    no visa needed for a visit
  • Time vs New York
    same time as New York
    9h of a 9–6 day overlap with Eastern time
  • Time vs Los Angeles
    3 hours ahead of Los Angeles
    6h of a 9–6 day overlap with Pacific time
  • Non-stop from the US
    20 US airports
    Wikipedia, 2026-10

Prices are in US dollars. US citizens are taxed on worldwide income; the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and state residency rules are worth a look before a long stay.

Eating out

OpenStreetMap, 2026-1116

429restaurants within 3 km

Mapped around the centre of Panama City: plenty of choice within walking distance. A count of what is on the map, not a rating, and it does not affect the score.

How Panama City scores, factor by factor

Superscripts link to the source list at the bottom. Country-level figures apply to all of Panama.

Cost of living

Monthly cost for one person (log-scaled, cheaper is better).
48
  • Monthly cost, one person: $1,7132 · city-level, 2026-07
  • Central one-bedroom rent: $1,0372 · city-level, 2026-07

Safety

Homicide rate and political stability (country-level).
48
  • Homicide rate: 12.78 per 100k4 · country-level, 2024
  • Political stability: 69.9/1005 · country-level, 2025

Healthcare

WHO universal-health-coverage index and life expectancy (country-level).
83
  • UHC service coverage: 82/1006 · country-level, 2023
  • Life expectancy: 79.3 years7 · country-level, 2023

Internet

Median measured download and upload speed (M-Lab, city-level; the province or country aggregate where the city has too few tests).
70
  • Median download: 43.6 Mbps8 · city-level, 2024
  • Median upload: 9.9 Mbps8 · city-level, 2024
  • Tests measured: 13,5068 · city-level, 2024
  • Starlink: Available9 · country-level, 2026-10, not scored

Visa ease

How easily your passport gets in and stays: visa-free days, eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa or consular visa, plus a nomad visa and how affordable its income threshold is. Averages US, EU and UK passports until you pick yours.
79
  • Nomad visa: Short-stay visa for remote workers10 · min income $3,000/mo
  • Entry, US passport: 180 days11 · country-level, 2026-02
  • Entry, EU passport: 90 days11 · country-level, 2026-02
  • Entry, UK passport: 90 days11 · country-level, 2026-02

Getting there & around

Non-stop airport destinations (hub size) plus editorial walkability and transit ratings.
28
  • Non-stop destinations from PTY: 9312 · city-level, 2026-10
  • Walkability: 2/513 · editorial, 2026-09
  • Public transit: 3/513 · editorial, 2026-09

Climate

Share of months that are comfortable: 59–82°F (15–28 °C) mean, at most 5.9 in (150 mm) rain, at most 85% humidity.
33
  • Comfortable months: 4 of 1214 · city-level, 2001–2020 normals

Air quality

Annual mean PM2.5 on a fixed scale: 5 µg/m³ (WHO guideline) scores 100, 50 µg/m³ or worse scores 0.
79
  • Annual mean PM2.5: 14.3 µg/m³15 · city-level, 2023

Quality of life

Human Development Index and English proficiency (country-level).
63
  • Human Development Index: 0.83917 · country-level, 2023
  • English proficiency: low18 · country-level, 2024

What does Panama City cost per month?

Total, one person$1,713city, outskirts one-bedroom
Total with a central one-bedroom$2,076derived
One-bedroom rent, centre$1,037city
One-bedroom rent, outskirts$674city
Country cost index (US = 100)43country

Can you stay legally?

Digital nomad visa · Panama

Short-stay visa for remote workers

Not yet reviewedSubmit a review →
Income
$3,000/month
Initial stay
9 months, renewable up to 18 months
Apply
In the country
Read the Panama digital nomad visa guide →for Panama City
Nomad visaShort-stay visa for remote workers
Minimum income$3,000/month
US passport180 days
EU passport90 days
UK passport90 days

Visa rules change often. Verify with the issuing government before you book.

Do you pay tax here on income from abroad?

Tax status · Panama

Foreign investment income is untaxed, but work done from Panama is Panamanian-source on a literal reading

Territorial

Panama taxes only income produced in Panama, so foreign dividends, interest, capital gains, rent and pensions are untaxed even if you bring the money in, and there is no wealth, inheritance or gift tax. The catch is work: the tax regulations treat services performed in Panama as Panamanian-source whoever pays, so remote pay is taxable at 0%–25% on a literal reading. No official ruling settles this for remote workers.

  • Remote work income

    Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients

    Taxed

    0%–25% progressive (15% above B/.11,000, 25% above B/.50,000)

  • Investments and pensions

    Dividends, interest, gains, rent and pensions from abroad

    Not taxed

  • Wealth

    Net wealth and inheritance

    No wealth tax

    No inheritance tax

Tax resident after
183 days a year
Top income tax rate
25%

On the nomad visa

The Short-stay Visa as Remote Worker (Visa de Corta Estancia como Trabajador Remoto, Executive Decree 198 of 7 May 2021) lasts nine months, renewable once, for employees of foreign companies or self-employed teleworkers whose work takes effect abroad and who earn at least B/.36,000 a year from foreign sources. The decree says nothing about income tax and grants no exemption. Holders swear not to accept work or business in Panama, which keeps them away from clearly Panamanian-source income, but pay for the remote work itself sits in the grey area described under remote work. Staying more than 183 days in a calendar year makes you tax resident even on this non-resident visa, though in a territorial system that changes little.

Not yet reviewed by a person · compiled from official pages read on 2026-10-27

General information, not tax advice. Tax treaties, your citizenship and your home country's exit rules can change the answer. US citizens are taxed by the US wherever they live.

Airports and nonstop flights

Panama City is served by one airport.

AirportNonstop destinationsInternationalFrom US airports
PTYTocumen International Airport939220

Wikipedia airport pages as of 2026-10: seasonal routes included, charters and announced-but-not-started routes excluded.

What is the weather like through the year?

Comfortable months by our rule: Dec–Mar. Rank cities for Dec–Feb →

MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Mean °F808082838281818181808080
Rain in0.80.40.74.29.61088.79.610.29.84.3
Humidity %797470738184858584858583

Green temperatures mark months that meet the comfort rule (59–82°F, ≤5.9 in rain, ≤85% humidity). NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology at the city coordinates.

Where can you stay in Panama City?

Three ways to live here, and what each does to the monthly budget. Rents are the one-bedroom figures from the cost table; hotels and short lets are priced per night and cost more, most of all in high season.

OptionRent per monthMonthly totalNotes
One-bedroom outside the centre$674$1,713The basis of the monthly cost and the cost score.
One-bedroom in the centre$1,037$2,076The monthly total with the central rent swapped in.
Hotel or short let——For the first weeks or a stay under a month. Compare hotels on Navoy →

Monthly rents assume an unfurnished lease of six months or more; furnished monthly lets usually cost 20 to 50 percent more.

Cities with a similar profile

Also in Latin America: Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Americana, Antigua Guatemala, Antofagasta, Arequipa

Ready to see Panama City for yourself?

Nostos tells you where. Navoy, the AI travel planner behind it, builds the trip: itineraries, places to stay and what to book before you land.

Opens on navoy.io.

The vibe

What people post about living in Panama City, read for its mood. It is a reading of opinions, not a fact, and it is not part of the score.

Liked · 66Commenters who live there mostly praise stability, nature, food and cheap-ish rent, but warn about corruption, weak public services and trash; mixed-to-positive overall.

People praise
  • stability and growing economy
  • nature and beaches
  • fresh seafood and tropical fruit
  • affordable rent compared to expectations
  • air hub connectivity
  • infrastructure expansion like metro
People warn about
  • corruption
  • trash and sanitation
  • weak public health and education
  • gringo tourist pricing
  • limited local-only upper-class benefit
  • Panama City is better than common stereotypes suggest
  • Costs are manageable if you cook and learn local tricks
  • Public services lag behind the city's modern image
  • Neighborhood choice matters a lot for daily life
  • Colombia may offer more value for the money

Read from 5 videos, 25 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-07; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.

Frequently asked

How much does it cost to live in Panama City as a digital nomad?
A single person typically spends about $1,713 per month in Panama City, renting a one-bedroom outside the centre (about $674). A central one-bedroom costs about $1,037, which brings the total to roughly $2,076. That is a 48/100 cost score, where 100 is the cheapest city in the dataset.
Is Panama City safe for digital nomads?
Panama City scores 48/100 on safety. Panama records 12.78 homicides per 100,000 people per year (WHO, 2024) and a political-stability score of 69.9/100 (World Bank WGI). Both figures are national, so neighbourhood-level risk can differ.
Does Panama have a digital nomad visa?
Yes. Panama offers the Short-stay visa for remote workers with a minimum income of about $3,000 per month. Verify current rules with the issuing authority before applying. Full guide: https://nostos.navoy.io/visas/panama
How fast is the internet in Panama City?
Measured median download speed in Panama City was 43.6 Mbps (upload 9.9 Mbps) across 13,506 M-Lab tests in 2024. Measured speeds run below advertised plan speeds everywhere, so compare cities rather than reading the number as a plan.
Is Starlink available in Panama City?
Yes. Starlink's availability map lists residential service as available in Panama (checked 2026-10), so a dish can serve as a backup line in Panama City. Check the exact address on starlink.com before ordering, since capacity varies by area.
Which airports serve Panama City and how many nonstop flights are there?
Panama City is served by Tocumen International Airport (PTY) with 93 nonstop destinations, of which 92 are international. 20 US airports have a nonstop link. Source: Wikipedia, 2026-10.
When is the best time of year to be in Panama City?
The most comfortable months are Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec. Mean temperatures range from 80°F (27°C) in Jan to 83°F (28°C) in Apr (NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology).
Panama City or Pedasí: which is better for digital nomads?
Pedasí is the city with the closest factor profile to Panama City in this dataset. Which one wins depends on your weights; the comparison page puts every factor side by side with the numbers behind them.

Sources

Dataset 2026.11.3, published 2026-11-10. Download the full dataset or read the methodology.

  1. 1.City population (latest census or official estimate), Wikipedia (citing national statistics offices). CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. City-proper figures; the per-city source URL is stored with the seed row.
  2. 2.Cost of Living Global 2026 (city rows), WhereToEmigrate. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. monthly_cost_single_eur and rent_1br_center_eur, converted to USD at the ECB reference rate on the retrieval date (see ecb-frankfurter).
  3. 3.2026 Cost of Living Index (country level), WhereNext. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Country-level monthly estimate used only where no city-level figure exists; cost_index kept for every city.
  4. 4.Victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population (national data, latest year), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, dataUNODC. UNODC data, free to reuse with attribution. Retrieved 2026-10-12. Police- or statistics-office-recorded rates reported to UNODC's crime-trends survey, latest year per country (2024 for most), both sexes, all ages; the United Kingdom uses England and Wales. Replaces the WHO modelled estimate wherever UNODC has a figure from 2018 or later; WHO's 2021 estimates ran several times above recorded figures for El Salvador and Honduras. Workbook data_cts_intentional_homicide.xlsx (July 2026) reduced by scripts/build-dataset/inputs/convert-unodc-homicide.py.
  5. 5.Worldwide Governance Indicators — Political Stability and Absence of Violence (score 0–100), World Bank. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  6. 6.UHC service coverage index, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  7. 7.Life expectancy at birth (years), both sexes, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  8. 8.M-Lab NDT statistics (city aggregates, 2024), Measurement Lab. CC0 1.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Median of daily median download/upload throughput over 2024 for the city aggregate; sample count is the number of tests. Speeds reflect user-initiated tests, not advertised plans.
  9. 9.Starlink availability map, SpaceX (Starlink). Factual status cited from starlink.com. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Residential service status per country from the file Starlink's map loads. Grouped as on the map: launched or available = available; coming soon, pending regulatory approval or test = coming soon; blacklisted = not offered; unknown or excluded = unknown. Shown on city pages and as a ranker filter; not part of any score. Roaming and maritime plans can work in more places.
  10. 10.Nostos long-stay visa guides, Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-04. One record per country in data/manual/visas/<iso2>.json, compiled into data/visa-guides.json. Each guide lists the official government pages it was compiled from with retrieval dates. A guide's `verification` field is set only when a named person has re-read every source; until then pages say the guide is not yet reviewed by a person.
  11. 11.Passport Index dataset (visa requirements, 199 passports × 199 destinations), Ilya Ilyankou (compiled from passportindex.org). MIT. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Days per visit where stated; 'visa free' without a limit is credited as unlimited; eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa and visa required are credited 0 days for scoring but shown by kind. The default US/EU/UK figures use the US, German and British passports.
  12. 12.Airport destinations (Wikipedia airline and destination tables), Wikipedia contributors; countries via Wikidata. CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-24. Distinct destination airports listed in each airport article's passenger table, resolved through Wikidata. Seasonal routes count; charters and routes announced but not yet flying are excluded. The as-of date is the newest article revision among the city's airports. Falls back to the OpenFlights snapshot when an airport has no article or table.
  13. 13.Walkability and transit ratings (editorial), Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Judgment ratings, not measurements. Explained on /methodology.
  14. 14.NASA POWER climatology (2001–2020 monthly means), NASA Langley Research Center. Public domain (US Government). Retrieved 2026-09-22. T2M, PRECTOTCORR and RH2M at the city coordinates (0.5° grid). Monthly precipitation = mm/day × days in month.
  15. 15.SatPM2.5 satellite-derived annual PM2.5 (V6.GL.02.04), Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group, Washington University in St. Louis. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Annual 2023 PM2.5 for the 0.1° grid cell at the city centre, from satellite aerosol retrievals combined with a chemical transport model and ground monitors. Used only for cities with no WHO database row. Where the same country has WHO-measured cities, values are scaled by the median measured/satellite ratio there (corrects desert-dust overestimates in the Gulf). Across 811 cities with both, log-correlation with WHO values is 0.89 and the median difference 2 µg/m³.
  16. 16.OpenStreetMap restaurants (Overpass API), OpenStreetMap contributors. ODbL 1.0. Retrieved 2026-10-02. Count of OpenStreetMap elements tagged amenity=restaurant within 3 km of the city centre coordinate. Measures how many restaurants are mapped, which tracks real density well where OpenStreetMap is well maintained (Europe, the Americas, East and Southeast Asia) and under-counts where it is not (parts of Africa and Central Asia).
  17. 17.Human Development Index (HDR 2025, HDI 2023), United Nations Development Programme. CC BY 3.0 IGO. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  18. 18.EF English Proficiency Index 2024 (band), EF Education First. Proprietary; band cited as a fact with attribution. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Only the proficiency band is stored, transcribed by hand from the public ranking.